Incumbents face political unknowns in congressional races

When it comes to the two congressional races in the Upstate this year, political experts agree: The matchups are uneven, tilting toward the incumbents.

In both the 3rd and 4th congressional districts, poorly funded, politically unknown Democrats face Republican congressmen with plenty of campaign cash and name recognition.

The Republican-controlled Legislature redrew the lines of both districts last year, and the Democratic challenger in the 3rd District has spent a lot of time answering questions about his felony record.

Both districts are “heavily tilted towards Republicans, and the candidates who aren’t Republicans have no money to make people aware of themselves or their positions on issues,” said Danielle Vinson, chair of the political science department at Furman University.

But the situation isn’t a problem for voters, she said, as long as they’re happy with their representatives.

Ashley Woodiwiss, a professor of politics at Erskine College, however, said the mismatched contests may be a symptom that all is not well in the body politic.

“American politics works best when voters are presented clear and compelling policy alternatives,” he said. “Safe seats discourage this possibility and tend in the long run to produce incumbent laziness and voter apathy.”

John Simpkins, a fellow at the Charleston School of Law, said the incumbents – Jeff Duncan in the 3rd District and Trey Gowdy in the 4th District – have superior fundraising ability and name recognition by virtue of their already being in office.

“Those advantages are magnified by having districts that are drawn to favor Republicans and a preference among some voters to vote a straight ticket,” he said.

The experts agreed that redistricting to suit the party in control of the state Legislature is one factor that can limit competition.

In South Carolina, Republicans were in charge last year when the General Assembly inserted a seventh congressional district among the six the state already had.

Every congressional district was reshaped during the process, and nearly 55,000 residents in southern Greenville County were shifted from the 4th District to the 3rd District.

There’s also the question of whether Democrats are doing enough to recruit candidates, or if they can even be expected to compete effectively in a region and state that leans Republican.

Bruce Ransom, a professor of political science at Clemson University, said the job of finding competitive candidates falls to political parties.

Parties grow strong when they recruit qualified candidates to run on issues and platforms that resonate with voters, he said.

“And that’s on the party to come up with those issues and positions and attract those persons who can carry the message and run races and run viable campaigns,” he said.

But Vinson said there may not be much that Democrats can do, given political reality in the Upstate.

It may simply be, she said, “that this part of the state is very conservative and not likely to vote for a Democrat. You can’t make it competitive.”

Simpkins, however, said he believes the Democratic bench has been getting deeper in South Carolina.

“They fielded a strong group of statewide candidates two years ago, but they could not gain traction in the political culture of straight-ticket voting,” he said.

Simpkins also pointed out that South Carolina Democrats get little support from the national party’s fund-raising mechanisms.

“Outside Democratic groups look at South Carolina as a lost cause, further hampering efforts to mount competitive campaigns,” he said.

4th District race

In the 4th Congressional District, Gowdy, a one-term incumbent from Spartanburg, faces Democrat Deb Morrow of Inman. Jeff Sumerel, a Green Party candidate, is also on the ballot.

Gowdy, a former prosecutor, spent much of his first term investigating Operation Fast and Furious, a bungled federal sting in which firearms were allowed to “walk” across the U.S. border in hopes of tracing them back to Mexican drug dealers.

The investigation, which resulted in the House finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, lasted 20 months and “essentially consumed the first term,” Gowdy said.

Gowdy, as a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has also probed a federal mandate that private employers provide insurance coverage for contraception and the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya in a terrorist attack.

Gowdy said he also worked on legislation during his first term, including a measure that allows the FBI to join crime investigations in cases where it otherwise wouldn’t have jurisdiction.

Gowdy said he also spent time sharing information with constituents on important questions such as reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, which he supported, and worked with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Reps. Jim Clyburn and Tim Scott to secure federal funding for the port of Charleston.

Gowdy said he’s accepted every invitation to speak back in the district and only took one trip – a visit to Mexico as part of the Fast and Furious investigation.

Gowdy said House leaders asked him three times to be the final floor speaker on legislation and that he’s been given a subcommittee chairmanship and a subcommittee vice chairmanship.

“So the notion that because you are a freshman your voice can’t be heard or you can’t be an influence in your sphere is not correct,” Gowdy told GreenvilleOnline.com.

His campaign had raised nearly $680,000 as of Oct. 17, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Asked about Morrow, Gowdy said she seems “well-intentioned” and is to be commended for “being willing to enter the arena of ideas because it’s not easy to run for public office.”

“We just have a different view on where the country ought to go,” he said.

Morrow, 61, is an Asheville native who moved to South Carolina six years ago.

Morrow said she worked in various jobs before retiring, the last one being an administrative assistant in a doctor’s office.

She’s been an activist in various causes, including literacy, for which she was recognized by former First Lady Barbara Bush, she said.

Morrow also organized the Occupy demonstrations in Spartanburg and got a $12,000 mortgage on her house so middle school students in rural Dillon would have money for a field trip to Washington, D.C. The students included Ty’sheoma Bethea, who was mentioned by President Barack Obama in a 2009 speech.

Morrow said she decided to run for Congress in part because she didn’t want Gowdy to go unopposed. She’s running as the Working Families Party candidate as well as a Democrat.

“They told me I needed a half million dollars to even consider running,” Morrow told GreenvilleOnline.com. “I said, ‘Well, that says to me what’s wrong with Congress right there. Because if you need that kind of money, that’s going to stand between a lot of good people who have something to offer.”

According to FEC records, Morrow’s campaign had a little more than $6,500 cash on hand as of the end of September.

Morrow said she figures it’s time a “regular person” represented the 4th District.

“Congress has the lowest approval rating since they measured it,” she said. “It’s been in single digits. Everybody is dissatisfied with Congress, but they are kind of resigned to it. So I said, ‘Well, if everybody’s dissatisfied with the job Congress is doing, I’ll just run and try to bring the perspective of a regular person.”

Morrow said her priority would be campaign finance reform to limit the influence of lobbyists and keep rich, anonymous donors from buying elections.

Morrow also said she’d oppose Republican plans to privatize Social Security, turn Medicare into a voucher program or give taxpayer money to private schools.

She faulted Gowdy for spending so much time trying to advance a Republican political agenda and discredit the Obama administration through the Fast and Furious investigation.

“Some people think that’s time well spent because they just don’t like Obama and they don’t want him to be re-elected,” Morrow said. “I don’t consider that time well spent.”

Morrow said the controversy has been “de-bunked” as a “non-scandal.”

But Gowdy said oversight work such as the Fast and Furious investigation is “very important” because citizens must be able to trust their government.

Sumerel, the Green Party candidate, said he’s running to test the “theory of pure democracy” and wants to deploy an online voting system that would enable 4th District voters to vote on every issue brought to Congress for a vote.

That way, “Anyone in the 4th District willing to participate will have an equal chance to directly express and record their preference on pending legislation,” Sumerel told GreenvilleOnline.com.

At the end of the year, “There will not be my voting record, but instead, the 4th District's voting record,” he said.

Sumerel, 59, described himself as a producer and director of documentary films. He said his non-traditional approach means he won’t express an opinion during the campaign or during his time in Congress if he’s elected.

“The reason for this is to provide the purest form of representation, and to make the government and electoral process less manipulative,” Sumerel said.

“Also, by not expressing an opinion or taking a stance on issues, this will reduce -- if not eliminate -- the extraneous amount of time and effort that is typically spent by representatives on trying to persuade or convince people. Instead, I will spend that time initiating and mediating community communications.”

3rd District race

In the 3rd Congressional District, Duncan, a one-term incumbent from Laurens County, faces Democrat Brian L. Doyle, a former paramedic who lives in Greenwood and has worked as a radio talk show host.

Duncan, 46, ran a small auction business and spent eight years in the South Carolina House before going to Congress.

In Washington, Duncan said he’s focused on reigning in spending and changing the conversation about the national debt.

“I’ve been around the district campaigning and serving, and that’s what I hear. Thanks for standing strong on our deficit,” Duncan told GreenvilleOnline.com. “Thanks for standing strong on our debt. Thanks for standing strong on irresponsible spending. Thanks for adhering to the Constitution.”

Duncan introduced bills to expand nuclear power and offshore drilling, counter Iranian influence in the Western Hemisphere and resurrect the congressional Byrd Committee to scrutinize government expenditures.

He sees jobs and the economy as the biggest issue, and he’d reduce the burden of taxes and regulation to “unleash American exceptionalism.”

“I think Congress has a job to provide some certainty for the marketplace so employers can make decisions knowing the rug’s not going to be pulled out under them next week,” Duncan said.

His campaign had raised more than $630,000 as of Oct. 17, FEC records show.

Asked about his opponent, Duncan said Doyle is “running as a Democrat, so he adheres to, I would say, to most of the policies that Democrats put forth, and that is more government, more government regulations, more taxation to pay for irresponsible spending. I disagree with that.”

Doyle, 37, said he stopped hosting “Water Cooler Moment,” his left-leaning radio talk show, while he runs for Congress a second time. He lost the Democratic primary in 2010 but this year defeated Cason Gaither.

Doyle said he supports abortion rights, wouldn’t cut Medicare under any circumstance and would strengthen education by providing laptops to students in the eighth through 12th grades.

Doyle said his felony record stems from mistakes he made in 1999 when was much younger and “rebellious” and running an ambulance service.

He told GreenvilleOnline.com that he was charged after refusing to cooperate with a federal investigation into Medicare fraud by a businessman who ran a medical supply business and occupied an office near his.

Doyle said he was convicted of failure to report Medicare fraud and making a false statement to a federal agent and served 14 months in an Edgefield prison camp.

The Nov. 6 election, however, is “not about my past,” he said.

Doyle said he faces an uphill battle as a Democrat running in a Republican-leaning district, but thinks his opposition to the war in Afghanistan and the Patriot Act will appeal to Ron Paul libertarians in Seneca, Clemson and Pickens.

Doyle faulted Duncan for supporting Paul Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program – a policy he said would cost 3rd District seniors $1,500 to $2,000 a year.

Duncan said he favors upping the age that retirees can receive Medicare and Social Security and changing the actuarial tables used to calculate benefits. The programs must be changed somehow “in order to keep the benefits solvent for folks that are paying into the system now,” he said.

Doyle also said Duncan never responded to his call for debate, made in a certified letter sent the day he won the Democratic primary.

But Allen Klump, a spokesman for Duncan, said Doyle didn’t join the congressman at a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 24, sponsored by the Newberry Business Alliance.

Doyle said he had already agreed to be somewhere else by the time he got the invitation.

“Jeff had four months to choose where he wanted to debate and didn’t,” Doyle said.

FEC records show Doyle’s campaign reported about $350 in campaign donations as of July 7, and had $15,435 in loans.

Doyle said Duncan and South Carolina’s other Republican congressmen added to gridlock in Washington by undermining their own House speaker’s negotiations with President Obama over debt reduction.

“My opponent, with all due respect, he came to Washington with an ideology that he wanted to block government,” Doyle said. “We don’t want anything done. Not having anything done does not help the 3rd District.”

But Duncan said the Democratic-controlled Senate is responsible for gridlock by refusing to act on important legislation passed by the House. He acknowledged pushing House Speaker John Boehner and others “to a more conservative stance.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Incumbents face political unknowns in congressional races

When it comes to the two congressional races in the Upstate this year, political experts agree: The matchups are uneven, tilting toward the incumbents.

A link to this page will be included in your message.

Real Deals

Flip, shop and save on specials from your favorite retailers in the Upstate